JIMMY'S TAKE | Season opener a 'nightmare' for the Cleveland Browns

Everything that could go wrong did go wrong, according to "Voice of the Browns" Jim Donovan.

Author:
Jim Donovan

Published:
6:27 PM EDT September 8, 2019

Updated:
6:44 PM EDT September 8, 2019

CLEVELAND — On opening day, it was a nightmare of a day for the Browns and everybody who was here to watch it.

If you watched it, I'm sure you experienced the pain, too. Tennessee 43 and the Browns 13? Unbelievable, but very believable when you take a look inside the numbers: You give up 180 yards in penalties, you'll lose. You commit 18 penalties, your left tackle doesn't think and gets kicked out of the game for kicking another player, all of a sudden things start to unravel. Then the next guy who comes into the game to replace the left tackle? He hurts his knee, and even the quarterback is getting x-rays after the game on his shoulder after he gets sacked in the end zone.

There were missed plays as far as the new, shiny, "Cadillac" wide receivers. Were they in the right spot or the wrong spot? The real question is, did they play enough during the preseason? It looks like the answer was no. There was no chemistry out there except for the first drive, but even then, the kid kicker misses the extra point, and the team ends up taking one on the chin.

The Browns get a long week to think about it as they get set for the New York Jets on Monday Night Football at MetLife Stadium a week from tomorrow night. They have to put it together, and have to reconstruct their offensive line. After all, in that third preseason game when that unit played together in Tampa, they had their problems. Everyone said, "Ah, it will be okay. Everything will be fine by opening day." But opening day just showed there is a real problem on the Browns' offensive line.

So whereas the Browns are saying "It's just one game," remember, we know the history. 0-1 can become 0-3 pretty quickly, and we're 0-1 with tough games coming up: the road game at the Jets, a Sunday Night game against the defending NFC champion Los Angeles Rams, and oh yeah, a trip to Baltimore after that.

The Browns better rectify a lot of things that went wrong on this day, and do it quickly.